, I
am as ignorant, you see, as you!"

Dexter's face was a study. He seemed hurt and pleased at the same time,
and his face was full of reproach as he said--

"Ignorant as me! Oh!"

"There, I'll speak to papa about your lessons, and he will, I have no
doubt, say a few words to Mr Limpney about trying to make your tasks
easier, and explaining them a little more."

"Will you!" cried the boy excitedly, and he caught her hands in his.

"Certainly I will, Dexter."

"Then I will try so hard, and I'll write down on pieces of paper all the
things you don't want me to do, and carry 'em in my pockets, and take
them out and look at them sometimes."

"What!" cried Helen, laughing.

"Well, that's what Mr Limpney told me to do, so that I should not
forget the things he taught me. Look here!"

He thrust his hand into his trousers-pocket, and brought out eagerly a
crumpled-up piece of paper, but as he did so a number of oats flew out
all over the room.

"O Dexter! what a pocket! Now what could you do with oats?"

"They were only for my rabbits," he said. "There, those are all nouns
that end in _us_, feminine nouns. Look, _tribus, acus, porticus_.
Isn't it stupid?"

"It is the construction of the language, Dexter."

"Yes; that's what Mr Limpney said. There, I shall put down everything
you don't like me to do on a piece of paper that way; and take it out
and read it, so as to remember it."

"Try another way, Dexter."

"How?" he said wonderingly.

"By fixing these things in your heart, and not on paper," Helen said,
and she left the room.

"Well, that's the way to learn them by heart," said the boy to himself
thoughtfully, as with brow knit he seated himself by a table, took a
sheet of paper, and began diligently to write in a fairly neat hand,
making entry after entry; and the principal of these was--

"Bob Dimsted: not to talk to him."

The next day the doctor had a chat with Mr Limpney respecting Dexter
and his progress.

"You see," said the doctor, "the boy has not had the advantages lads
have at good schools; and he feels these lessons to be extremely
difficult. Give him time."

"Oh, certainly, Doctor Grayson," said Mr Limpney. "I have only one
wish, and that is to bring the boy on. He is behind to a terrible
extent."

"Yes, yes, of course," said the doctor; "but make it as easy for him as
you can--for the present, you know. After a time he will be stronger in
the brain."

Mr Limpney, BA, l